The currently accepted method for creating a deterministic operations network, as is used for applications in a selected environment such as an aircraft and on-the-ground support for the aircraft, is to allocate network resources to traffic flows generated by connected systems. The network resources are typically allocated in the form of reserved network bandwidth; either by defining dedicated, fixed size time slots or by defining a traffic rate in terms of bytes or frames per second. Currently accepted strategies for allocating network resources favor essential functions over non-essential functions when allocating the finite set of network resources with the consequence that less essential functions, which might only operate under certain well defined conditions, are either severely restricted or are eliminated entirely. Past attempts to accommodate different operating modes have required changes to the configuration of the network to match the different modes, each of which allocates less than the aggregate of available resources.